A milestone target has been reached in a fundraising mission to send a youngster to the US for surgery that could help her walk for the first time.

Little Mae Louisa Lilly Fox, aged three, needs £70,000 for the life changing operation but £10,000 has already been raised in just three weeks.

The condition has left the youngster unable to walk by herself but, after researching pioneering surgery available in Missouri, mum Amy Wildsmith and dad Matthew Fox are desperately trying to raise the funds to give their daughter a new start.

Amy, 28, of Birch Road, Cantley, launched the Hope4Mae campaign in a bid to send her daughter for pioneering surgery in the United States.

She said: “We have been overwhelmed by the support and generosity of people.”

A total of £1,380 was raised at boxer Jamie McDonnell’s recent world title-winning fight at the Keepmoat Stadium.

And Jamie and his brother Gavin have also signed a pair of boxing gloves each which are going to be raffled at auction and all proceeds will go to Hope4Mae.

Amy, who also has two sons, eight-year-old Dylan and four-year-old Oliver, said: “The success rate of the surgeon in America is 100 per cent.

“He has been performing the operation for 25 years.

“I read about another little girl who had the same condition as Mae and after the surgery was walking around. I couldn’t believe it.

“Mae is such a determined little girl and she has amazed us with her progress. We didn’t think she’d ever be able to talk but she has started to say ‘mummy and dadda’.”

Mae has already been accepted for the operation that involves carefully cutting the nerve fibres in her spine to improve her movement, but the family need funds to pay for it.

Amy added: “This surgery would give Mae a new start.

“Instead of living life on her knees she would have a new form of independence.

“She is such a lovely little girl, always smiling and her nan says she lights up the room”.

“For her to be able to walk into our bedroom by herself is something I would’ve never though possible but this surgery can help her do this.”

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